Ursula Andress

Ursula Andress (born 19 March 1936) is a Swiss retired actress who has appeared in American, British, and Italian films. Her breakthrough role was as Bond girl Honey Ryder in the first James Bond film, Dr. No. She later starred as Vesper Lynd in the 1967 Bond parody Casino Royale. Other notable credits include Fun in Acapulco (1963), 4 for Texas (1963), She (1965), The 10th Victim (1965), The Blue Max (1966), The Southern Star (1969), Perfect Friday (1970), Red Sun (1971), The Sensuous Nurse (1975), Slave of the Cannibal God (1978), The Fifth Musketeer (1979), Clash of the Titans (1981), and Peter the Great (1986).

Early life Ursula Andress, the third of six children, was born on 19 March 1936 in Ostermundigen, Canton of Bern, to a Swiss mother, Anna, and Rolf Andress, a German diplomat. Her father was expelled from Switzerland for political reasons and her grandfather, a garden designer, became her guardian. She has a brother, Heinz, and four sisters, Erika, Charlotte, Gisela, and Kàtey.

Andress went to school in Bern until she was 16 and learned several languages, including English, French, German, and Italian. She studied art in Paris for a year, then went to Rome, where she worked various jobs including being a nanny.

Career

Andress was at a party when she met a film producer who offered her a screen test for a role in an Italian film. She was successful and was cast in walk-on parts in An American in Rome (1954) (starring Alberto Sordi), Sins of Casanova (1955) (starring later Bond ally Gabriele Ferzetti), and La catena dell'odio (1955).

Andress arrived in Hollywood in early 1955. That spring she was signed to a seven-year contract with Paramount Pictures, starting at $287 a week. The contract brought no acting roles, owing to her reluctance to learn English. "I spent most of my time watching old Marlene Dietrich movies", she said. Andress received some publicity for dating James Dean shortly before the actor's death. She bought herself out of her contract and in 1956 signed with Columbia Pictures. She made no films for them either. She stayed in Hollywood when she married John Derek in 1957. In 1959, it was announced she and Derek would star in a film, High Variety, but no film resulted.

Andress returned to acting in 1962 in an episode of Thriller, "La Strega" (1962), with Alejandro Rey. She became internationally famous as Honey Ryder, a shell diver and James Bond's object of desire in Dr. No (1962), the first Bond film, even though her dialogue had to be dubbed by Nikki van der Zyl. In what became an iconic moment in cinematic and fashion history, she rose out of the Caribbean Sea in a white bikini sporting a large diving knife on her hip. The calypso singing her character did in that scene was dubbed by Diana Coupland. The scene made Andress a "quintessential" Bond girl. Andress later said that she owed her career to that white bikini: "This bikini made me into a success. As a result of starring in Dr. No as the first Bond girl, I was given the freedom to take my pick of future roles and to become financially independent". The bikini she wore in the film sold at auction in 2001 for £41,125. In 2003, in a UK Survey by Channel 4, her entrance in Dr. No was voted #1 in "the 100 Greatest Sexy Moments". Andress won the Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year in 1964 for her appearance in the film.

Andress followed it playing the female lead in an Elvis Presley musical, Fun in Acapulco (1963). She was billed after Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and Anita Ekberg in 4 for Texas (1963); her casting in the latter led to the title being changed from Two for Texas.

In 1965, nude photographs of her from Nightmare in the Sun were published in Playboy; it was the first of seven times she was pictured in the magazine over the next fifteen years. When asked why she had agreed to do the Playboy shoot, Andress replied coolly, "Because I'm beautiful". That year, Andress was cast in the title role of She (1965), playing an immortal queen, for Hammer Films and Seven Arts Productions, shot in England and Israel. Andress agreed to make it as part of a two-picture deal with Seven Arts; it was a financial success at the box office. Andress did not appear in the sequel, The Vengeance of She, as her contract expired before the film was produced. She also had a supporting role in the comedy What's New Pussycat? (1965) for producer Charles K. Feldman which was a huge hit. She went to France to play Jean-Paul Belmondo's love interest in Up to His Ears (1965), which was popular in France; she and Belmondo became romantically involved, leading to her and Derek divorcing (although they had already been separated for a year). Andress moved to Paris to live with Belmondo and it was her home for the next seven years. Andress made her second film for Seven Arts: another with Derek, who again starred and directed, Once Before I Die (1966), shot in the Philippines. More widely seen was the Bond satire Casino Royale (1967), also produced by Feldman, where Andress played Vesper Lynd, an occasional spy who persuades Evelyn Tremble, played by Peter Sellers, to carry out a mission. It was a big box office hit. Her fee was a reported £200,000.

In Italy, she appeared alongside fellow former Bond girl Claudine Auger in Anyone Can Play (1967) for director Luigi Zampa. She then went to Africa to make The Southern Star (1969) with George Segal, which was a hit in England. She appeared nude or semi-nude in nearly all of her film roles between 1969 and 1979, earning her the nickname "Ursula Undress".

Andress went to England to appear in Perfect Friday (1970), a heist film starring Stanley Baker and David Warner. In Spain, she appeared in Red Sun (1971), a Western with an international cast including Charles Bronson, Toshiro Mifune, and Alain Delon. In a 1972 interview, she said "I think my image, especially to Americans, is that of a femme fatale, a man-eating woman. I'm not empty-headed or calculating and cool. But maybe my looks give that impression. I'm disciplined in my doings and undisciplined in my emotions. I can't control the things I feel or hide my feelings". Derek and Andress wed on 2 February 1957, in Las Vegas, but separated in 1964 over her affair with Once Before I Die co-star Ron Ely, Prior to the finalization of her divorce, Andress publicly dated John Richardson, her co-star from She, and Marcello Mastroianni, her co-star from The 10th Victim.

From 1965 to 1972, Andress lived with her Up to His Ears co-star Jean-Paul Belmondo. She has stated that Belmondo was the love of her life. Her next live-in relationship was with another co-star, Stateline Motels Fabio Testi, from 1973 to 1977 (except for one year when they broke up). She also dated Ryan O'Neal, John Delorean, Helmut Berger, Paolo Pazzaglia, Johnny Dorelli, Franco Nero, with whom she later starred in Red Bells, Carlos Monzón, Nels Van Patten, and Ricci Martin.

When Andress broke her arm in 1978, the official story was that she had been struck by Hurricane Norman while bodysurfing in Malibu, but it was rumored that she actually suffered the injury during a fight with her on-again/off-again boyfriend O'Neal. O'Neal and Andress were in a relationship twice, first from 1972 to 1973, then again from 1977 to 1978.

Andress lived with actor Harry Hamlin after meeting on the set of Clash of the Titans in 1979. She gave birth to their son, Dimitri Alexander Hamlin, on 19 May 1980. The night of her delivery, Linda Evans drove Andress to the hospital while Evans's assistant Bunky Young retrieved Hamlin from the set of King of the Mountain. Although she was engaged to Hamlin, the couple never married.

In the mid-1980s, Andress was romantically involved with soccer player Paulo Roberto Falcão, actor Gerardo Amato, singer Julio Iglesias, real estate developer Stan Herman, and bodybuilder Mario Natokis. In 1986, she began dating Fausto Fagone, a future Sicilian Regional Assembly member. He was 20 and she was 50. The relationship, which infuriated Fagone's parents, lasted until 1991. She also has resided in Florida, Virginia, and Spain. As of 2022, Andress splits her time between a home outside Rome and a house in Gstaad, near her siblings. Her preferred language is Italian.

Andress's business manager, Eric Freymond, committed suicide in July 2025, after which it was discovered he had embezzled $23 million from the actress. In 2026, she successfully sued Freymond's estate to recover her stolen fortune.

Filmography Film

Television